Yongle Dadian was compiled in Yongle period of Ming Dynasty, formerly known as Literature Dacheng. It is an encyclopedic collection of documents in China, with 22,937 volumes (60 volumes in the catalogue), 1 1095 volumes, with about 370 million words. This ancient cultural treasure house has gathered 78,000 kinds of ancient and modern books. However, the Yongle ceremony was devastated, and most of them died in the war. Today, there are less than 800 volumes. As a world-famous encyclopedia, Yongle Dadian shows the brilliant achievements of ancient Chinese culture and is a grand ceremony that embodies great achievements.
Yongle Grand Ceremony: Introduction
The Atlas of Yongle Grand Ceremony shows that in the first year of Yongle (A.D. 1403), Judy, the founder of Ming Dynasty, ordered Jie Jin, a bachelor of Hanlin, to compile a book. Jie Jin organized bachelors to compile books around the clock. In the second year, he compiled an integrated book called Documentary Masterpieces. However, because the grass is short and the content is not rich, there is no meaning of synthesizing ancestors. Soon, the prince and Yao were sent to supervise the revision, and Confucian scholars and scribes were mobilized to participate in editing, recording and marking. About 3,000 Confucian scholars have collected 7,000 to 8,000 kinds of books, including Yi, History, Zi, Collection, Interpretation, Collection, Taoism, Drama, Commentary, Engineering and Agronomy. From the pre-Qin dynasty to the early Ming dynasty, it was all-encompassing and all-encompassing.
After four years of careful compilation, it was finally completed in the winter of the sixth year of Yongle (A.D. 1408) and named Yongle Dadian. After the original book was compiled, it was hidden in Nanjing Wen Yuan Pavilion. It was not until the completion of Beijing Palace in the 19th year of Yongle (A.D. 142 1) that this book was moved to Beijing Wenlou. In the thirty-sixth year of Jiajing (A.D. 1557), the palace caught fire, and this code was saved from burning. Five years later, Zhu Shizong of the Ming Dynasty was afraid of another accident, and ordered Confucian scholars to copy it on 109, which was completed in five years of the first year (A.D. 1567). It was hidden in Huang Shiwei. When the Ming Dynasty perished, the original was burned. More than 2,000 copies disappeared in Qingganlong, and most of them were burned by Eight-Nation Alliance in the 26th year of Guangxu. After liberation, 2 15 volumes were collected.
Yongle Dadian: A Classic Type
There are as many as seven or eight thousand kinds of important ancient books in the Yongle Dadian Atlas. From the pre-Qin Dynasty to the early Ming Dynasty, was this really the case at that time? Including the vastness of the universe, the similarities and differences between ancient and modern times? . Many of the secret books before Song and Yuan Dynasties have been lost, which can be preserved and circulated. The collection of books includes: classics, history, philosophy, collections, Buddhism, Taoism, opera, vernacular, crafts, agriculture, medicine, literature and so on. The collected books are not easy to read a word, and they are compiled according to the whole book, the whole article or the whole paragraph, which further improves the documentary value of the preserved materials. Book style? Use rhyme to unify words, and use words to tie things? , retrieval is very convenient. There are 22,877 volumes in the book, 60 volumes in the catalogue, * * 1 1095, with 370 million words. After the book was compiled, it was collected in Wen Yuan Pavilion. After Yongle moved the capital, he moved the capital to Beijing and hid it in the Wen Lou (Zhao Wen Guan) of the Forbidden City. In August of the forty-first year of Jiajing (1562), I copied a copy. Since then, Yongle Dadian has two originals and two copies, which are collected in Wenyuan Museum and Huang Shiguang respectively.
The book includes astronomy, geography, human relations, national unity, morality, political system, famous things, anecdotes, different opinions, as well as the sun, moon, stars, rain, wind, clouds, frost, dew, mountains, seas and rivers. The book is divided into different categories and collected more than 8,000 kinds of ancient books from the pre-Qin period to the early Ming Dynasty. Most of the classics and historical subsets, books of Taoists and Buddhists and philosophers are collected and arranged in great detail. It has preserved a large number of rich and precious materials such as philosophy, history, geography, language, literature, art, religion, science and technology before the Ming Dynasty.
Yongle Dadian contains more than 8,000 kinds of ancient books from pre-Qin to early Ming Dynasty. In addition to masterpieces and subsets of history, it also includes various works such as philosophy, literature, history, geography, religion, medicine and divination. It is the largest encyclopedia in the history of China, more than 300 years earlier than the famous Encyclopedia Britannica. The contents of Yongle Dadian include poetry, drama, monks, Taoism, medicine, technology and so on. Among them, Yongle Dadian also contains many precious books that have been incomplete or lost in later generations, such as Xue's A Brief History of Liao Dynasty and Shui Jing Zhu in Song Dynasty. The quoted materials are completely copied from the original text, so many precious documents can be preserved. A treasure house of rare books and cheats before the early Ming Dynasty? .
Yongle Grand Ceremony: Causes and Conditions
The first appearance atlas of Yongle Dadian is eliminated? Changes in Jingnan? The influence of. In the era when Neo-Confucianism prevailed in Cheng and Zhu, it was considered counterintuitive by many courtiers and intellectuals to forcibly seize the throne from his nephew. Judy adopted a combination of kindness and compassion. On the one hand, he killed people who refused to accept it, on the other hand, he advocated culture and education, revitalized academics and softened them. Compiling a batch of books can put a large number of intellectuals under the direct control of the central government and bury themselves in simple compilation, which can make them silent and have no time to ask more questions about political affairs. At the same time, it can reduce people's awareness of? Jingnan? Worries. Therefore, Ming Chengzu ascended the throne soon, which is when he revised the ceremony.
Second, the compilation and revision of the grand ceremony is not only the need of the political struggle in the early years of Yongle, but also the need since the founding of the Ming Dynasty? Sandwiches? The result of policy formulation. According to Ming History? What is recorded in Chengzuji? The strategy of martial arts is the same as that of Gaozu? Feudal emperor. What about after he acceded to the throne? Six divisions have repeatedly come out, and the dust in Mobei has settled? ,? Vast territory, far from Han and Tang dynasties? . But he is not satisfied with this, but also put his own? Sandwiches? Still pushing? Yuan Maihan, Don? Peak. So, use one? Preface "Biography of Hundred Kings", a general code of all previous dynasties? what's up Unified production? To show off? When I was a freshman. It is very necessary to have a prosperous time.
Third, the compilation of the ceremony is also the need of social and cultural development. When the Ming Dynasty replaced the Yuan Dynasty, an important task was to revive the underdeveloped cultural and educational undertakings in the Yuan Dynasty. It is an integral part of this task to systematically sort out and summarize the traditional culture of the Han nationality through books such as Da Dian. However, The Grand Ceremony is by no means a collection of all the classics claimed by some articles. According to Biography of Lin Dong, Zhu Xian, a Confucian scholar in Raozhou, made a film in the early years of Yongle. Specializing in Zhou, Cheng, Zhang and Zhu Zhixue? As a result, not only people were beaten with sticks, but also books were burned. According to "The Biography of Soldiers", Judy also ordered Jie Jin and others to clean up the commemorative items of the Wen Jian Dynasty. Pay attention to agriculture, mulberry, ceremony and music and keep them; Guilty? Things that are' difficult', burn them. ? It can be seen that for the above books, The Grand Ceremony should also be unceremoniously abandoned. Call it? Aodian? , is also relatively speaking.
Fourth, it has the necessary cultural and economic conditions for compiling Yongle Dadian. According to records, after the Ming army captured the Yuan capital, it transported all the collections of the Yuan government to Nanjing. The Yuan Dynasty successively bought books from Song, Liao and Jin Dynasties in Beijing, and the quantity was very large. At the same time, in the period of Taizu and Chengzu, there were many requirements for folk books. Therefore, shortly after the founding of the Ming Dynasty, there appeared an extremely rich government library, which is extremely rare in the collection history of China Library. Later, the compilation of the ceremony was done in the royal library at that time? In the Wen Yuan Pavilion, all these books became the final edition of the ceremony. In addition, during the Tang and Song Dynasties, the academic development and the rapid growth of writings, and the prosperity of engraving and printing industry in the Song Dynasty, made books spread more widely, and public and private works spread very rapidly, and these works were also collected by the grand ceremony. All these will inevitably make it far more than the previous generation in scale; In addition, both Zhu Yuanzhang and Judy attached great importance to culture and education. At that time, schools at all levels were set up all over the country, which also created a strong academic atmosphere and a solid talent base for the compilation and revision of the Grand Ceremony. After Judy acceded to the throne, she built water conservancy projects, expanded water transport, rewarded farmers and mulberry, and the social economy became increasingly prosperous, which provided a reliable economic foundation for compiling such a large-scale work as Da Dian.
To sum up, during the reign of Emperor Chengzu of the Ming Dynasty, all the conditions needed for compiling the grand ceremony were met.
After the book was written /0403, Judy, the fourth son of Zhu Yuanzhang, borrowed Yongle Dadian 65438+ Editor? Jingnan? This name, drive away his emperor, seize power, year number? Yongle? . In order to show off Wen Zhi, he appointed Bachelor imperial academy and Prince Yao as the producer, compiled a large-scale book, and systematically collected all the ancient and modern books in the world for easy reference.
Jie Jin and others were ordered to organize 147 people to copy various materials into the book according to the rhyme of Hongwu Zheng Yun. The following year 1 1 month, the book was compiled and named Documentary Dacheng. According to historical records, Judy "didn't prepare many books he read", so he ordered them to be rebuilt. Jie Jin was ordered to rectify the compiling power and open the Wen Yuan Pavilion. Participants included three presidents, 25 vice presidents, 347 editors, five editors, 332 editors, 57 sample readers, 1,381 professors, 20 administrative officials and 2,180 people. And successively "more than 3,000 editors".
In the fifth year of Yongle (1407), the book was basically finalized, and Yao led the submission. Judy expressed satisfaction after reading it, prefaced it herself, officially named it Yongle Grand Ceremony, and hired a copywriter to copy the whole book. By the winter of 1408, the book Yongle Dadian had been copied out. In the 19th year of Yongle, the Forbidden City in Beijing was built and Judy moved to Beijing. The Yongle Grand Ceremony was then transported to Beijing and stored in the Wenlou of Miyagi for a long time. In the thirty-sixth year of Jiajing (1557), a fire broke out in the palace, endangering the Wenlou. After the fire, Emperor Jiajing had the idea of making a separate copy of Yongle Dadian. The duplicate was not re-recorded until the first year of Qin Long (1567), which was completely consistent with the format and binding of the original Yongle Grand Ceremony. The original Yongle ceremony was moved to Wen Yuan Pavilion, and its whereabouts were unknown after the Ming Dynasty.
Yongle Grand Ceremony: Carrier Material
"The Grand Ceremony" was made of mulberry bark and paperback bark. At that time, it was used to be called white cotton paper in the north. Because? Its longitudinal stripes are torn like cotton thread, so? Cotton paper. (Song and Ming Ying Xing's Heavenly Creations) This kind of paper was mass-produced before and after Jiajing. It is white and elastic, and it is a good choice for printing books. What do bibliophiles used to say? White cotton paper book? . The thickness of "Dadian" paper is 0. 12mm white cotton paper.
black
Huizhou ink was the most famous in Ming dynasty, and its output was also very large. It is made of various ingredients of Huangshan pine smoke and sold all over the country. Huizhou ink merchants such as Cheng and Fang have been operating for generations and are well-known overseas. Zhu Mo is made of cinnabar mineral, which does not fade for a long time.
Yongle Grand Ceremony: Font Illustration
Except that the initials of the title are written in all kinds of seal script, official script and cursive script, the characters are all regular script. In Ming and Qing dynasties, the imperial examination papers were required to be neat and tidy, with the same size. Therefore, students and officials appointed by scientific research in Guange and Hanlin Academy are good at this word. Regular script in Ming dynasty is generally traditional Chinese characters, which are not very formal and have the rhyme of Song and Yuan Dynasties. After the end of the Ming Dynasty, influenced by Dong Qichang, the font pursued roundness, and the pavilion became increasingly mediocre. The Grand Ceremony is a masterpiece with neat fonts and free and easy spirit.
Various illustrations in the ceremony include stories of people, Bo Gu artifacts, palace buildings, gardening flowers and trees, maps of mountains and rivers, etc. With traditional line drawing, the character scene is vivid and delicate. When Jia Jing recorded the assistant, it was also the painter who used the original picture. Therefore, these illustrations are the remains of painters' paintings in the Song, Yuan and Ming Dynasties, and they are also of great value in painting history and book illustrations.
Grid layout/The book Yongle Dadian is a hand-painted bamboo column book with a frame height of 35.5 cm and a width of 23.5 cm, surrounded by two sides. Eight lines, big single line 14, 5 words, small double line 28 words. The version has a big red mouth and a red fishtail. What's the next question? Yongle Dadian Volume, the next title is the fish tail room. Its sidebar, trunk and fishtail are all hand-painted, and hundreds of thousands of pieces of paper are needed for a grand ceremony. Hand-painted columns are also a big project. It is speculated that if the tools are not used slowly and irregularly, the sidebar and the book opening may be hollowed out and fixed with a thin plate, and then painted red on the board with a brush. The straight grid in the column is another completion. It is said that the scroll system in ancient China had more than one blank grid and a special pen bed. The words in the book are ink, and the title and oral words of quotations are red. The broken sentences are covered with small red circles to make Zhu Mo bright and easy to read.
Yongle Grand Ceremony: Binding Form
The "Grand Ceremony" is Abao Beizhuang, that is, every page of paper is folded in half by the middle seam, and the spine of the book is twisted with paper first, and the outside is wrapped with cardboard.
The whole piece of yellow cloth is packaged into a book cover. After mounting, put a long yellow silk bookmark with a blue edge on the top left of the book cover. Question? Yongle ceremony? Volume? . Stick a small box of yellow silk label, title list and book number on the upper right. Each volume ranges from 30 to 50 leaves, and each volume is mostly two volumes, and there are also one or three volumes. This book is 52 cm high and about 3 1 cm wide.
Editing method/edited book or encyclopedia of Yongle Dadian
Bibliographers believe that kind of books are reference books that collect and copy all kinds of books and materials, sort them out according to certain methods, and make it convenient for people to consult. It appeared only after the ancient academic culture developed to a certain stage and accumulated a large number of books and documents, which were sorted by special personnel. Yongle Dadian was the largest kind of book at that time.
Guo Moruo thinks that the western encyclopedia is similar to the Yongle Grand Ceremony in arrangement form, so he said in the preface of the Photocopying Grand Ceremony. The completion of The Grand Ceremony not only provides the earliest and largest encyclopedia in the cultural history of China, but also stands out in the cultural history of the world? Zhang also said in the Preface to the History of Yongle Grand Ceremony: Yongle Grand Ceremony was a large-scale encyclopedia compiled by the Ming Dynasty ancestor (Judy) during the Yongle period, which was more than 300 years earlier than the encyclopedia edited by Diderot and D'Alembert and the famous Encyclopedia Britannica. ? Therefore, Da Dian has the reputation of being the largest encyclopedia in ancient China. In fact, Da Dian is an encyclopedia compiled in the Ming Dynasty, and there is still room for discussion.
The difference between encyclopedia and encyclopedia
The sorting methods of ancient books in China are mainly classified according to things, and some are arranged according to the title of the book or the first word of the item. Yongle Dadian is an arrangement method that classifies words according to rhyme first.
The differences between books such as Yongle Dadian and western encyclopedias mainly include the following aspects:
First of all, Yongle Dadian is a comprehensive collection of all books and materials from ancient times to that time. The related contents are quoted and copied sentence by sentence or paragraph by paragraph or the whole book, and even the same thing can be compiled into different versions for reference. It is not clear whether it is correct. Western encyclopedias are divided into several volumes and entries according to knowledge categories, and then authoritative scholars are invited to write their own opinions or recommend research results and introduce correct knowledge, academic views and works.
Secondly, according to the current situation, regardless of the ancient books before the Tang Dynasty, there should be more than 10,000 kinds of books published in the Song Dynasty and more than 3,000 kinds in the Yuan Dynasty. When compiling Yongle Dadian, 7,000 kinds can be collected, but up to now, only over 3,000 rare books of Song and Yuan Dynasties have been preserved in the world. In other words, through the Yongle Dadian, we can see a large number of secret historical materials that have been lost since the pre-Qin Dynasty to the early Ming Dynasty, which can play an important role in compiling and sorting out ancient books for scholars. In Qing Dynasty, officials of Siku Library compiled more than 300 kinds of lost books, and later scholars compiled 600 kinds, which will continue to be collected in the future. The encyclopedia has the characteristics of textbooks written by scholars at that time and facing the public. With the development of social culture and the update of scientific knowledge, it will be revised and reprinted continuously.
Thirdly, judging from the purpose and function of editing, the main purpose of ancient books such as "Da Dian" is to preserve and sort out historical documents, facilitate inquiry and serve feudal rulers. Encyclopedia is the product of modern education and plays the role of national education.
Yongle Grand Ceremony: The Lost Process
Only 34% of the "Atlas of Yongle Grand Ceremony" exists in the world, and its process is as follows: Academics generally believe that a large number of books were destroyed by the war between Ming and Qing Dynasties, and some people suggested that they might be buried in Yongling as a sacrificial object of Emperor Jiajing, and some scholars called it an unsolved mystery.
The more reliable situation is:
First, a copy of Jiajing is kept in the Royal Archives in the southeast of the Forbidden City. During the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty, it moved to the south of imperial academy to dedicate a pavilion.
Second, because of stealing officials, stealing British and French allied forces, and Eight-Nation Alliance's burning, killing and looting. These books suffered many bad luck and finally broke up.
Third, during the Kangxi period, many Jiajing manuscripts were discovered in Huangshi Pavilion. In the thirty-seventh year of Qianlong's reign, we revised Sikuquanshu and checked Jiajing's manuscript, and found that 2422 volumes were missing, 1000.
4. During Jiaqing and Daoguang years, imperial academy officials stole more than 65,438,000 copies when compiling the Annals of the Whole Tang Dynasty.
5. In the tenth year of Xianfeng (1860), the British and French allied forces invaded and occupied Beijing, and imperial academy was destroyed and robbed, with numerous grand prizes. In particular, the British robbed the most and shipped them back to their own countries as trophies. Since then, some unscrupulous officials have stolen this grand ceremony. The embassy in Meiere? , with 10 silver to sell 1 to foreigners.
6. In the first year of Guangxu (1875), there were only 5,000 copies left in the Qing Dynasty. In the 20th year of Guangxu (1894), there were only over 800 volumes left in just 20 years.
Seven, Guangxu twenty-six years (1900) in June, Eight-Nation Alliance invaded Beijing, Dongjiaominxiang became a battlefield, and books were scattered. The invaders plundered big stores and even used them instead of bricks to build fortifications. Almost all the big stores were burned down, and the survivors were looted by intruders or picked up by some people in China who knew the value of this book.
Eight, Xuantongyuannian (1908), when the Shi Jing Library was built, there were only 64 volumes left. By the end of 1959, the original 2 15 volumes of Yongle Dadian were collected, and 730 volumes were obtained together with the codex. At present, Zhonghua Book Company 1960 photocopies 730 volumes of Yongle Dadian, plus 65 volumes collected from various places, making a total of 795 volumes.